The Week: September 9-12, 2013

The new fall music tour season is starting, and warms up in Madison this week with performances by Mörglbl, Andrew Belle, The Ballroom Thieves, The Floozies, J. Roddy Walston & The Business, The Psychedelic Furs, Tommy Emmanuel, Victor & Penny, Elephant Revival, and Greensky Bluegrass. The calendar also includes: talks titled "Investigative Journalism in Turbulent Times” and "From Microbes to Public Goods"; more live music by White Birch Ensemble; and, the RuPaul's Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons show.

This French band was invited to book a show before it had a name, and a borborygmus was the first thing that came to frontman Christophe Godin's mind. "Sense of humor" and "jazz metal" aren't normally used in the same sentence, but the group successfully combine the two. With Neil Zaza.

Tuesday 9.10

NOTEWORTHY: After years of neutrality, Switzerland joins United Nations, 2002.

For the fall's first Academy Evenings event, staff from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, including Bill Lueders and Andy Hall, discuss why in-depth reporting is vital to democracy and respond to the Legislature's attempt to boot their offices from the UW campus.

This singer-songwriter's music has been featured on several TV shows, including Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Pretty Little Liars. Get acquainted with his third LP, Black Bear, which was released last month. With the Young International.

In a lecture subtitled "From Microbes to Public Goods," Princeton professor Simon Levin discusses how evolution has shaped individual and group behaviors during uncertain times, highlighting examples from the natural sciences (slime molds) and the social sciences (the wild world of insurance co-ops).

Walston's pounding piano and gravelly voice are cornerstones of the Tennessee rockers' signature sound. The Baltimore City Paper says he can even "make James Brown look lazy." With Taddy Porter and the Family Business.

This English New Wave band's song "Pretty in Pink" inspired the title of John Hughes' 1986 film about high school cliques. See if anyone comes to the show dressed for the prom Molly Ringwald and Jon Cryer attended in the movie.

Here's your chance to see drag's ruling power couple, Sharon Needles and Alaska Thunderfuck, in action. Queens from past seasons of Logo's hit reality series will perform mind-boggling makeup tricks, spew hilarious insults and set the runway ablaze with cuckoo couture to win the favor of judge Michelle Visage.

The Australian guitarist has five decades of performing experience and two Grammy nominations, including one for The Day The Finger Pickers Took Over the World, an album he recorded in 1996 with Chet Atkins.

Jon Hozier-Byrne and David Reilly traveled from Dublin, Ireland, to Madison to tape two episodes of "Beer & Board Games," a popular web series where four comedians drink beer while playing a board game.more »

Bleachers' "Strange Desire" is the rare rock record that's both a soundtrack for summer cookouts as well as personal crises. Now this side project is a full-time gig for fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff. He visits Majestic Madison on March 31.more »

FOOD & DRINK

The tap takeover at Craftsman Table & Tap offers an opportunity to experience Deschutes' range, and to determine if the Bend, Oregon-based brewery, the sixth largest in the U.S., can compete with Wisco's own. Robin Shepard takes on the job.more »